


Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress

by Menya_Savut



Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Apologies, Bathing/Washing, Battle, Blood, Complicated Relationships, Comrades in Arms, Family, Family Dynamics, Gen, Injury, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Storytelling, Talking, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 13:11:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9550544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menya_Savut/pseuds/Menya_Savut
Summary: Basically just a bunch of drabbles/oneshots where I try to pin down that itchy feeling I get when I write something I’m satisfied with, but using the delicately tricky HTTYD canon. More to come, maybe, I don’t know.1. Hiccup and Snotlout after Thawfest.2. Snotlout, again.Title is a quote by Albus Dumbledore :)





	1. Sæmd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup and Snotlout after Thawfest.

He’d followed the dragons through the tunnels to the beach on the south side of the island. Toothless had run ahead in excitement, following Stormfly, and Hiccup just managed to reel him in to take off the prosthetic tailfin before Toothless scampered onto the beach. He trundled into Hookfang and they chirped at each other for awhile before Barf splashed the two with his wing.

Hiccup sat on a rock at the mouth of the tunnel, content to watch the dragons play in the shallow water. He considered joining them; he’d sweated straight through his clothes during the Thawfest games, but his metal leg would rust in the water, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to go hobbling about on one leg in the crashing waves, even if he had the dragons for company. So he settled for taking off his own prosthetic and laying it next to Toothless’s, and peeling off his outer vest. He kicked off his shoe, rolled up his pant leg, and buried his toes in the sand.

The sun lowered steadily into the sea, and the dragons’ splashes threw droplets of water into its light. The sky turned orange and purple with the sunset.

When he heard the shuffling of footsteps behind him, Hiccup didn’t turn around. He knew it was Snotlout; he’d learned the sound of his approach over the years.

When Snotlout reached him, Hiccup scooted over to offer him space on the rock, but Snotlout sank into the sand beside him. They shared a cursory glance but said nothing.

Hookfang lifted his head from butting Meatlug’s, but Snotlout waved him off and the dragon went happily back to wrestling.

“The feast should be starting soon,” Snotlout said.

“Did you come all the way to the south side of the island to tell me that?” Hiccup said, realizing belatedly that he sounded a little cold. “How did you know to come here anyway?”

“I was looking for Hookfang, actually,” Snotlout said. “I know he likes the beach.”

“Yeah, a Monstrous Nightmare that regularly sets himself on fire,” Hiccup said wryly. He’d seen the other dragons cajoling Hookfang into going with them, earlier that afternoon.

“Hm,” said Snotlout.

They lapsed into silence again. The sun touched the ocean’s surface. Toothless had retreated from the water. He laid curled up on the sand, nosing the missing side of his tail.

“You threw the race,” Snotlout said.

“No I didn’t,” said Hiccup.

“I’m not stupid,” Snotlout said. “That’s the twins.”

Hiccup exhaled, a shallow laugh. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For—“ Hiccup rubbed his elbow absentmindedly. “For being full of myself. And for throwing the race. That wasn’t fair to you.”

Snotlout snorted. It was starting to get properly dark now, but neither boy moved to call the dragons.

“When we were nine, I left you in the forest,” Snotlout said. “And when we were eleven, I dropped you into a well. Last winter I locked you out of your house. You climbed through your bedroom window using mead barrels.”

“I was tempted to drink them, too, to keep warm. You would’ve been jealous then.”

Snotlout smiled thinly, but it dropped after a second. “We’re pretty weird, aren’t we?”

“Yeah,” said Hiccup.

It was fully dark now. Hiccup reached for his things and whistled. Toothless and the other dragons scurried toward them. Hiccup strapped his leg on and stood.

“You think there’ll be food left over?” he said.

“Probably not,” Snotlout said. “You know Vikings. Ravenous like wolves.”

“We’ll break into the stores for something,” Hiccup said.

“Mead,” Snotlout said.

“Yes, mead,” Hiccup said. Toothless bumped Hiccup’s shoulder, and Hiccup patted his head. The other dragons gathered around them, and he and Snotlout led the way through the tunnels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Sæmd' is honor in Old Norse.


	2. Blót

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snotlout, again.

It was hard to hate a Viking.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. At nineteen, Snotlout had already participated in a number of battles, mostly against neighboring tribes that tried to steal food every so often, and it was easy then to slide into almost Berserker-like rage. He’d sliced flesh open and watched remorselessly as blood poured out; he’d bashed heads in and left the unconscious body to be trampled.

The first time he killed a man, he’d been unable to sleep for a day and a half, but everybody went through that.

No, what he meant was, it was hard to hate a fellow Berkian. Almost everyone knew each other and quarrels were quickly settled by the Chief. No, the farthest anyone ever went was sharp comments or aggravating pranks. There were bigger things to worry about, like growing stronger, fiercer, relentless.

 

For the moment, Snotlout was hidden in the shadow of the beast’s great underbelly.

The Slinkwraith gave a ghostly, keening cry; it echoed against the sea stacks around them and washed out the shouts and explosions from the ships below. The dragon-hunters had been circling under the riders since midnight, and both parties had been at an impasse until the Slinkwraith awoke at dawn, slithered out of its seaside cliff-cave and spotted easy prey on the horizon. Now the beast flew above them, silvery body twisting like an ermine, sloughing off great swathes of acid scales as it went. Already the twins had sustained some pretty serious burns, and Astrid’s shield had been melted away. The girl gave a sharp battle cry, however, and blocked the dragon’s turn toward Fishlegs.

“Push her higher!” Hiccup’s voice rang out, echoing coldly against the stony cliffs. Toothless dived to dodge another barrage of scales, and for a moment Snotlout lost sight of them. But Hiccup resurfaced ahead of him and went on. “Keep her interested!”

“She seems pretty interested enough!” Snotlout yelled after him, but quickly had to pull Hookfang into a barrel roll to avoid the dragon’s great wing. He righted himself and urged Hookfang up, closer toward the danger.

“Get her over the sea stacks!” Hiccup called.

Soon all the dragon riders were angled at the beast, snarling and snapping at they forced her to retreat. The Hunters let loose another spray of cannon-fire, but the riders were soon out of range. The dragon gave that keening wail again, and Snotlout ducked too late – the scales hit his arm, and pain streaked across his skin. He didn’t have time to flinch or shout; Hookfang had been hit as well and it took all of Snotlout’s power to get his dragon under control again. He faintly heard a shout of “Snotlout!” from somewhere, but by the time he’d registered his name Hiccup was speaking again.

“Arrows at the ready!”

At least the acid hadn’t touched his bow. Snotlout nocked an arrow and gritted his teeth at the pain in his arm. Above him, the Slinkwraith’s screams were dropping, becoming more coarse and guttural as she hovered in the early light. Her head whipped from her snakelike neck, and she opened her jaws for the first time in the battle. What effused was a blinding cloud of thick gray smoke. In moments Snotlout was surrounded by it, isolated from his friends and the rest of the world.

“Hold your positions!” Hiccup’s disembodied voice floated toward him. Snotlout listened to the uneven beating of the beast’s wings above. He braced to dodge falling scales, but none came.

The smoke grew brighter. The beast’s haggard breaths seemed closer now. Snotlout readjusted his aim and waited.

And then—

“FIRE!”

Snotlout released his arrow into the fog and nocked another.

“FIRE!”

Again he released his arrow and nocked another. And released again. With each wave of arrows, the beast’s cries grew deeper and deeper, until they grated against Snotlout’s ears like rending stone. Streams of blood, shockingly cold, rained down upon them, and Snotlout shook his head to clear his vision. The blood cut through the opaque smoke, and Snotlout saw the Slinkwraith spread its mottled wings and tremble. It gave a great shake of its pointed head, dragged its body around, and retreated back toward its shadowy cliffside home. And then there was only the smoke, the harsh scent of blood, and the whistling of the wind through the sea stacks.

A vicious barking cry, much smaller than the dragon’s screams, pierced the silence. He looked up. Hiccup, soaked in red, bow in the air.

The victory cry of Berk echoed around them, his friends and the dragons adding their voices to the cacophony. The smoke cleared to reveal their burned and bloodstained faces. Snotlout raised his bow and roared into the dawn.

 

When they dropped back down to the ocean, the hunter ships had gone. They’d used the Slinkwraith’s smoke to slip away.

They reached the Edge just as the first sliver of sun peeked over the island. Snotlout had wanted to tend to Hookfang’s wounds, but the dragon flew off as soon as he unsaddled him.

He met Hiccup at the hot springs. The morning sun hung low in the sky, and the fringes of darkness still crowded around it, though they were rapidly receding. The two relieved themselves of weapons and metal leg, stripped bare, and swam out into the water. For a few minutes, neither spoke. Soon, the bloody traces of the battle were washed away.

“How’s your arm?” Hiccup murmured. He floated on his back, looking like one of the little islets that broke up the flatness of the water’s surface.

Snotlout looked down at the red patches of his shoulder, bobbing back and forth as he treaded water. The searing pain had retreated to a dull, almost numbing ache.

“It’s okay, I think,” Snotlout said.

“We should have some oil for it in the stores.”

“The twins’ll need it more than me. Did you see Ruffnut’s face?”

Hiccup grimaced at Snotlout’s words. Ruffnut had tried to block with her shield, but angry blisters ran from her ear to her lips. Snotlout only hoped that none of it had gotten inside her mouth.

Snotlout ducked under the water. Beneath the surface, the hazy colors flickered together, giving off a strange sense of both warmth and cold. Snotlout seeped in the deafening silence, letting the water blur his vision.

When he resurfaced, Hiccup was still floating serenely. Snotlout shook his hair out of his eyes and said, “What about the hunters?”

“We’ll run into them again,” Hiccup said. He started to backstroke. “They’ll find us when we’re out on our patrols. We just have to be ready for them.”

“And how will we do that?” Snotlout asked, tracking Hiccup with his eyes.

Hiccup stilled. The baby blue sky had started to emerge.

Finally, he said, “We’ll figure it out.”

“The others will come looking for us soon,” Snotlout said.

They swam ashore, redressed, and walked back to the clubhouse.

 

When Hiccup was sixteen, he flew out with Toothless one morning and didn’t return. By lunchtime, the riders were uneasy with worry. They’d already crisscrossed the entire island of Berk and hadn’t found a scrap of Hiccup or Toothless anywhere. Finally, there was nothing else to do but split up and fly toward the sea.

Snotlout and the twins found Hiccup trapped halfway down a sea stack, Toothless standing above but unable to help. They quickly landed and Tuffnut, being the best climber, rappelled down to retrieve Hiccup. As they were coming back up, Hiccup’s metal leg lost purchase and he nearly plummeted onto the jagged rocks below. Finally, Hiccup crested the rim shaking and in tears. He wouldn’t let go of Tuffnut. Ruffnut piloted Barf and Belch alone and Tuffnut rode Toothless with Hiccup. Back on Berk, it took Astrid and Snotlout’s insistent coaxing to convince Hiccup to let go of Tuffnut, and the warblings of Toothless for Hiccup to breathe steadily. The exhausting day ended with Snotlout walking the two of them back home and hovering by the door long after it closed.

A few months ago Gustav had arrived on the Edge without warning and got himself captured by Dagur on their watch. Snotlout remembered how rough Hiccup looked the next morning, how his body seemed to lean toward wherever the kid was, how he watched them fly away until they were just a little speck in the sky.

Snotlout remembered learning how to fly with Toothless for the first time. He’d messed up badly and they’d dropped like a rock into the ocean. But Hiccup was there, swimming alongside them, switching places with Snotlout so he could steer his dragon out of the water. And then he’d made him try again. Snotlout thought he’d never remember all the foot positions, which ropes to pull to angle the tailfin correctly. They weaved through the sea stacks, Hiccup on Hookfang and Snotlout on Toothless. He studied Hiccup’s notes and diagrams by candlelight and stumbled through Hiccup’s quizzing the next day. He repeated the instructions out loud, went through the motions until his head pounded. They went on countless recon missions, Hiccup on Hookfang, Snotlout on Toothless. And suddenly he realized he’d been doing it for ages.

Nights on the Edge were spent eating roasted yak, playing Tafl games, telling stories of mighty Vikings slain in the heat of battle and drinking themselves sideways in Valhalla. They huddled close to the too-warm fire, laughed at the ridiculous boasts and crazy schemes. They gazed into the stars as night descended, and offered up one last prayer to Thor before going to bed.

 

They were nearly back to the clubhouse when Hiccup suddenly ran off the trail and into the underbrush of the jungle.

“Hiccup?” Snotlout stumbled through the foliage until he reached him. The other was vomiting violently behind a bush.

Snotlout fell to his knees beside Hiccup. He supported Hiccup’s chest with an arm and held his hair away as he retched.

After it was over, Hiccup sat back. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Snotlout could hear both of their breaths, rattling in their throats.

“Let’s go,” said Snotlout.

 

Snotlout’s mind was filled with the wind in his ears, the saltwater and the wilderness, the smell of dragon smoke. His vision pulsed with mountains shrouded in morning fog, rivers of fire, the endless sky above. He’d never felt so desperate in his life.

The tang of burn salve assaulted his nostrils. Ruffnut’s face was covered in the dark oil; she looked like she’d half a beard. But she grinned at her brother and punched him in the arm. Astrid leaned against the doorframe of the clubhouse, inspecting her new shield.

“Here,” Hiccup said. He handed Snotlout a bowl of the oil. Snotlout took the salve and rubbed it into his shoulder. It felt warm.

They’d sleep through the day and wake up just in time for dinner. They’d roast fresh fish and talk about the battle, until the hunters and the Slinkwraith were just another story spoken into the night. They’d brag about their daring feats, claim they’d go straight to Valhalla when they were killed. And then they’d eat and laugh, and when the fire burned down his cousin would start to speak, and they’d echo him, sending up one last prayer to Thor.

And Snotlout felt stronger, fiercer, relentless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title 'Blót' means sacrifice in Old Norse, as in sacrificial offerings for the gods.  
> If anyone wants an overly complicated explanation on Hiccup's choices of methods for defeating the Slinkwraith then I have it, but it's really not necessary to the story or anything. I just feel silly thinking all of it up and then not using it anywhere.


End file.
